Today was “God sighting day!”

Some more God sightings.

Living in Heavenly Wisdom opens the way for good things. Cody’s values culminating in his sincerity brought much good to him, as you will see today.

While rounding up stray cows, Cody came upon three rustlers stealing Dodge’s cattle. He was able to capture them and took them to Dodge’s ranch.

“Hello, Dodge, hope this finds you well. Found these three fellows rebranding your cattle. Thought you might like to have a talk with them.”

“I sure would, a shooting chat, or maybe a necktie chat!”
“Now Dodge, remember our talk about Heavenly Wisdom; one aspect is being sweetly reasonable. These here cattle thieves deserve some punishment, but not hanging. I’m going to turn them over to you and suggest you take them to the fort and hand them over to the Marshall there. He’ll take care of them.”

“How did you manage to capture all three?” asked Dodge. Cody explained, briefly. I’m right glad you were able to catch them, Cody. Three to one is not good odds.”

“Well,” said Cody, “Most of the time I figure a good offense is the best way, not backing away from problems, but charging right in. And that’s what I did.”

After he’d turned the rustlers over to his cowhands, Dodge said, “Come in and have some coffee with me before you go.”

Cody hesitated, wanting to be back to rounding up the cattle, but he realized it was very special for Dodge to invite him. “Ok, but I can’t stay long,” he replied.

After the cook brought them the coffee, Dodge leaned forward and looked gravely at Cody. “You are a most unusual man. I would like you to come and work for me. I could use such a man as yourself. In fact, I would like a son like you. I have only my daughter, no other heirs. She is not able to run this ranch when I’m gone. If you come and work for me, I would make you my heir!”

Cody blinked in astonishment, shook his head in disbelief. He was silent for a while, and then said, “Well, that’s a right generous offer. I did want to have my own spread. Would this mean that we’d be partners in the ranch?”

“Yes, it would,” replied Dodge. “Not only that, but I’d like you to consider marrying my daughter!”

“Really!!!?” said Cody, choking on his words, more astonished than ever. “But I’m just a cowhand, not good enough for your daughter.”

“No, you are more than good enough. Don’t miss this girl, you’ll never find one better suited to your values!”

Cody was quiet for a bit. “Your words are too good to be true,” he said, again shaking his head. “I will certainly consider and pray about this.”

“Good,” said Dodge, “you do that.” I’ll give you a week to make up your mind.”

Tomorrow you will learn the outcome!

Picture, Cody thinking and praying about his future.

Tonight, an example of being impartial.

When Cody was on a cattle drive from Texas, there was one young cow puncher named Andy who didn’t like Cody–not that Cody had done anything to rile him, he was just ornery and found Cody a good target for his irritation.

He would trip Cody around the campfire, tip over his coffee cup, make bad jokes about him and refused to take his turn on guard duty if he was relieving Cody—anything he could do to aggravate him.

Cody, however was a peace-loving man and chose to ignore this young trouble maker, hoping that the hard work would take some of the ginger out of him. Cody took some time to pray and think about the challenge Andy presented.

After he’d spent time praying, it came to Cody that probably something was eating away at Andy and he was taking it out on Cody as a result “He might have bad motives, but I have to have good ones,” Cody said to himself. After thinking about it, the good motive he came up with was to protect Andy and others from harm, and he would do this by not taking Andy’s bait.

One night, Andy got some hard stuff from somewhere and after drinking a bit was feeling pretty good. As the evening wore on, he became louder, more boisterous and belligerent. He began maligning Cody, who ignored it. Some of the other hands told Andy to back off, knowing that he was no match for Cody, but he ignored them

Cody’s lack of response aggravated Andy even more, and suddenly he came up off the ground and took a swing at Cody, who was sitting on his saddle on the ground.

Cody ducked and the force of Andy’s swing took him right over. Andy landed hard and didn’t move for a bit. Cody stood up and quietly waited for him to get up.

Andy rolled over and came slowly to his feet. But he was not a quick learner, so came at Cody again, who used Andy’s momentum to throw him over his shoulder and Andy crashed to the ground.

Cody spoke, “Now that’s enough, Andy. I don’t want to fight you; I’ve got nothing against you, so quit it! Now you go wash that blood of your face and get to bed.”

Andy climbed to his feet and stumbled off to his bed roll. But Cody was pretty sure Andy didn’t know he was whipped, and he thought he had to watch out. But he didn’t know the coming events that would change things with Andy.

The next morning the hands spread out along the edges of the herd, keeping them moving forward. As they moved through a low spot in the hills, they were suddenly attacked by Indians who came down on the herd without warning.

As the hands were all spread out to hold the herd, the Indians could come at each as a lone man. There were fifteen of them, and it was like they had each already picked out the man they would attack. Cody had his rifle out immediately and shot from the hip, hitting two Indians right off. The others coming at him went to ground.

He looked over and saw three attacking Andy, who seemed to freeze, so Cody swung his rifle and shot over the herd at those Indians. Unfortunately for them, he was an excellent shot and two went down right off while the third, who was a learner, turned and ran.

In the end they were able to hold those Indians off without losing anyone. A couple hands got winged, but no serious injuries.
That night at the campfire, one of the hands asked Andy if he knew who saved his skin.

“’Nope,” he said, ‘I was too busy shooting myself to notice” Now Cody knew that wasn’t true, Andy hadn’t done any shooting, but Cody let it pass.

“’You know, it was Cody, he shot two of them right out of their seats. Otherwise you would have lost your scalp and probably your life today. Cody treated you as he would anyone, not letting your nastiness influence him. He was and is impartial in doing good.

Picture: Andy struggling with a rowdy cow.

Another example of the fruit of Heavenly Wisdom.

Cody went on, “Well the second kind of fruit is mentioned in the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 15. It says, ‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.’

“The ‘sacrifice of praise’ means that we praise and thank God when we’d rather complain and feel sorry for ourselves. When we deny ourselves and give thanks, we honor God and open the way for Him to act in our lives, as it says in Psalm 50:23, ‘He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me, and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.’

“We can thank Him for the uncomfortable, the tragic, the difficult things of life because we know He has a plan for us and He will use whatever we don’t like for good in our lives, and in that of others.

“Let me give you an example of this. One time in Texas I was out rounding up strays when my horse was spooked by a big rattler. He leaped aside so quickly that I fell from the saddle. The horse took off running and I could tell he was going to head for home.

“There I was with only my six shooters, no canteen, no food, no help. I knew I was ten miles from the ranch and there was nothing to do but walk.

However, before starting off, I thanked God for this happening. ‘Lord,’ I said, ‘You allowed this; you have a plan, so I thank you for it and for what you will do through it. Guide me now, take me safely back to the ranch.’

“So, I began to walk. It was really hot, the sun reflecting heat off the desert sand.

“After several miles, I came up a ridge and there below me I saw a man lying on the ground.

“When I got closer, I could see that he had two arrows in him, and he was bleeding badly. Beside him was his rifle, and there were about twenty cartridges scattered around. He had given those Indians a hard time, that was obvious.

“When I got to him I squatted down and checked his pulse. He was still alive. One arrow was through his shoulder, the other in his side. I carefully lifted him up. He opened his eyes.

“I really got it,” he said. Gasping with pain he said, “My horse is tethered on the other side of this hill, if the Indians didn’t get him,” he said.

“Ok, I’ll check.” I left him and carefully and slowly skirted the edge of the hill, finding a small stand of trees–and his horse!

I returned to the man. “Friend, I need to pull out these arrows and then plug your wounds, so you won’t lose too much blood.

‘Whatever you have to do,’ he said.

“Both arrows had gone clean through so the heads were out. I got out my bowie knife, cut the shafts by the heads and carefully pulled out the remaining part.

“The man groaned as I pulled each out but didn’t flinch.

“I found some herbs the Indians used and after crushing them pushed them into the holes to staunch the bleeding.

“Now we need to get you to some help,” I said. “Let’s see if we can get you up on your horse.” He was weak from loss of blood but was game. I got him up into the saddle and tied his hands to the pommel to keep him from falling off.

‘You get up, too,’ he said. ‘You can hold me in the saddle. If you walk it will take too long.’

“He was, of course, right. We weren’t too far from the ranch, maybe five miles now, and the horse would be able to take two riders that far if we took it easy.”

“We got to the ranch an hour later and the hands helped the wounded man down and took him to the ranch house where the boss’s wife took charge of him. He lived.”

“Now think about this, if my horse hadn’t thrown me, I never would have found the wounded man. Or I may have ridden into that band of Indians myself. But God had a plan that included saving that man’s life and mine.

“My offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving was the way I could join Him in that plan.

“Let me repeat what Psalm 50:23 says, ‘He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.’ And that’s exactly what He did!”

Picture: Cody rounding up strays.